Tools · Keyword Planner
Search volume is the ceiling on everything ranking can pay you.
Look up volume, competition and bid data for any US keyword. It costs nothing to run.
- Volume tells you the ceiling. — Average monthly searches for the term and its variants.
- Competition tells you the cost. — How hard the term is being fought over right now.
- Bid data tells you the value. — Low and high bid — what advertisers pay for that click.
- Free forever. — Not a trial. Not an allowance. Nothing is deducted.
- US and states only. — No international suite. Stated up front.
- One seed word starts it. — Type a root term and a location. Read the ideas it returns.
- Push into Rank Tracker. — Or copy out. No export file download.
- Same login as the work. — Research sits next to the tools that fulfil it.
Free keyword data.
So you stop ranking for terms nobody searches.
Ranking #1 for a term with no searches pays nothing.
So volume is the first number to check.
Competition is the second — it tells you what winning it costs.
Bid data is the third. Advertisers only pay for terms that convert.
Read all three, then spend on the term worth the work.
The lookup is free. It never touches your balance.
No card required. See every tool and every price before you spend anything.
Why keyword work usually wastes money
The wrong keyword makes every link you buy worthless.
Most SEO budgets are spent before anyone checks the demand.
An article gets written. Links get pointed at it.
It ranks. And nothing happens, because forty people a month search that term.
The other failure is the opposite one.
The term has real volume, and it's already fought over by national sites.
You spend a year and never reach the first screen.
Volume and competition are the two numbers that separate those cases.
They cost nothing to look up here.
Be straight about the limits, though. This covers the United States and US states. Nowhere else.
And there's no download file. You copy results, or push them into Rank Tracker.
Check the volume before you brief the writer.
Free account, free planner. Spend on the keyword that survives the check.
No card required. See every tool and every price before you spend anything.
How it works
Look up. Decide. Track.
Research with no meter running.
- 01
Open Keyword Planner
Inside the same account as everything else.
- 02
Enter a root keyword
A service, a product, a topic. One word is enough to start.
- 03
Pick the location
The United States, or any single state.
- 04
Read volume and competition
Plus low and high bid, so you can see what the click is worth.
- 05
Keep what matters
Copy the rows out, or push them into Rank Tracker with Add to Project.
- 06
Spend credits on fulfilment
Articles, links, citations — after the keyword has earned it.
What you get
Numbers before spend.
A shortlist of terms worth ranking for.
- Keyword ideas
- Related terms off the root word you typed.
- Average monthly volume
- Per keyword, for the US or a single state.
- Competition
- How contested the term is before you commit to it.
- Low and high bid
- What advertisers pay for the click. A rough read on buying intent.
- A path into Rank Tracker
- Add to Project sends the keepers straight to tracking.
- No credit drain
- Research stays free, however many searches you run.
Still free. Still US and states.
Copy the results out, or push them into Rank Tracker. No download file.
No card required. See every tool and every price before you spend anything.
The facts
Limits included.
- Cost
- Free. Forever. The planner deducts nothing.
- Inputs
- A root keyword and a location.
- Geo
- United States and US states only. No other countries.
- Returned per keyword
- Keyword, average monthly volume, competition, low bid, high bid.
- Export
- Copy, or push to Rank Tracker. No file download.
- Hand-off
- Add to Project, with a client and search engine picker.
- Not included
- Rank positions, keyword clustering and site audits. Clustering is a step inside Campaign Builder, not a tool here.
What it costs to find out
Look up every keyword you want. Nothing is ever deducted.
The account is free and takes no card. Keyword Planner is free on top of that — it deducts nothing, ever.
Creating the account is free. Not a trial that takes your card "for verification" — no card at all, and no call with anyone.
And nothing expires on a timer. Credits sit in the account until you spend them.
When you're ready to spend
$0.35–$0.50
per credit, improving with the volume you commit to
See the full pricing page →What you are not signing
No contract, no minimum, no quote and no call. Buy credits monthly if the volume suits you, or buy a block once and owe nothing after it.
Every deliverable in the platform prints its credit cost on the button that spends it, so you always price the work before you run it.
No card required. See every tool and every price before you spend anything.
Before you ask
The questions we'd ask before pointing this at a client.
- What does search volume actually tell me?
- It's the ceiling on what ranking can return. If a term gets 200 searches a month, first place on it will never send more than a slice of 200 people. That number decides whether the article and the links are worth buying at all.
- Why does competition matter if the volume is good?
- Because volume is the prize and competition is the price. A term with big volume and heavy competition can take a year and a large budget. A smaller term you can actually win often pays back first. You want both numbers in front of you.
- Will a high-volume keyword get me traffic?
- Only if you rank for it, and the planner can't tell you that. It shows demand, contest level and what advertisers pay. Whether you win the term depends on your site and the work you put behind it.
- Is it really free?
- Yes. Not a trial, and not capped by an allowance on the planner itself. It runs on our own data credentials, so nothing comes off your balance.
- Can I research other countries?
- No. The United States and US states only. We don't pretend otherwise.
- Can I download a CSV?
- There's no export file. Copy the results out, or push the keepers into Rank Tracker with Add to Project.
- What do the bid figures mean?
- They're what advertisers pay for a click on that term. High bids usually mean buyers, not browsers, so a modest-volume keyword with a high bid is often worth more than a big one with none.
Free keyword data.
So you stop ranking for terms nobody searches.
Every link and every article you buy is aimed at a keyword. Pick the wrong one and all of it is wasted, no matter how well it's built.
Checking takes a minute and costs nothing.
Type one term you're about to write for. Read the volume and the competition. Then decide whether to spend.
P.S. — The account is free, there's no card, and the planner never deducts anything. Look up one keyword today and see whether the term you were about to fight for is worth the fight.
No card required. See every tool and every price before you spend anything.
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